by Xin Yage

After months of political and economic turmoil industries and parties find a shared formula to increase workers’ wages by 3.8%. In the face of a significant increase in GDP, wages have remained static and this has caused widespread discontent. Industrialists opposed: "This money goes into the pockets of migrant workers".

Taipei (AsiaNews) - After months of fierce political-economic fighting Taiwan's industries and political parties have reached an agreement to increase the minimum wage. From the current 19,273 Taiwanese dollars, the minimum monthly wage was increased to $ 20,008 (about € 510). This is an increase of 3.8%, which will benefit about two million workers.

One of the major economic problems for the population of Taiwan has long been its stagnating wages. While the gross domestic product has increased considerably over the last 10 years, wages have been effectively unchanged.

In terms of buying power, wages increased by an average of 0.9% against a level of inflation that has seen an average annual increase of 1.1%. Wages have not increased in proportion to the wealth generated by large Taiwanese companies, which by primarily investing in mainland China have notched up massive economic returns.

This has led to some discontent among the population, especially towards the political class held accountable for the economic situation of the younger members of the population. The new generations in fact, relying solely on their salary and despite the full-time job (in Taiwan, the unemployment rate does not reach 4%), are not able to buy a house or a normal standard of living without their parents help. The protests last March, including the occupation of Parliament, were also generated by this remarkable stagnation of wages.

On the other hand, with regard to the overall competitiveness of the Taiwanese, the low wages (especially compared to other developed economies of the region, such as South Korea, Singapore and Japan, especially in the last few months) had the positive effect of attracting investment to the island. "But this is not enough - says Mr. Hu (湖 誌 郎), manager of a software company with headquarters in Taipei - to attract the best engineers we must offer consistent wages, otherwise they leave".

The Taiwanese Workers Union (勞工 陣線) are not happy with the increase, having actually asked that minimum wage be brought to at least 23,745 local dollars, seeing the rising costs of essentials from groceries to real estate. "This increase is so small that we cannot afford even one extra egg a day",  said a worker interviewed after the news.

The representative of the National Industry and Commerce Association (工商 協 進 會), Lin Bo-feng (林伯豐) is in staunch opposition to the hike in minimum wages. Instead he is calling for the abolition of the minimum wage because "data in hand shows that with every increase of $ 500 we lose 10 billion taken from new investments which  mostly end up in the pockets  immigrant workers".

 

• TAIWAN
• minimum
• wages
• industry
• parliament
• unemployment